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Captains Welcome

It is with great pleasure that I welcome all players, members, supporters and referees to Lansdowne FC. It is a huge honour to be asked to captain this great club after only two seasons and I hope to emulate the success, both on and off the pitch, off my predecessors. Despite being (only!) 26 I have been forunate enough to play in the All Ireland League for 8 seasons thus far and it is great to see the league going from strength to strength and to see Lansdowne FC being the standard bearers. The facilities, coaching staff and support structures that Lansdowne provides to all levels within the club are second to none and led to our success at all levels the season just gone.

While 60 of us had the great pleasure of an old fashioned, unbeaten, tour to South Africa, it is now time to get back to work with a new season dawning. We are fortunate to retain the services of Mike Ruddock and Mark McHugh as first team coaches, ably supported by Will Matthews and Justin Meagher. Ciaran Walsh remains as conditioning coach after his fantastic work last season keeping us fit for 20 highly competitive league matches. Additonally the back room team of Steve Rooney (Director of Rugby), Colin Goode (Chairman of Rugby) and Paddy Gore (Manager) remain intact and I’m sure I speak for everyone in saying that we would simply not be as successful without their tireless input.

I would like to congratulate the many Lansdowne players who have been honoured to receive representative colours based on their endevours last season, especially Cian Kelleher who played for the Ireland A’s in the Tbilisi Cup and Tom Daly who has the great honour of captaining the Irish 7’s squad in their pursuit of a place at the Rio Olympics next summer. While there has been some departures from the senior squad, I expect those positions to be suitably filled by the victorious All Ireland U20 graduates along with the junior players stepping up to the senior ranks. To those players who have moved on from Lansdowne, I would like to thank you for your efforts and wish you the best of luck in the future.

Finally, on behalf of all the players, I would like to thank all the sponsors, especially Zurich, as they continue to promote and contribute to the success of Lansdowne FC at all ages from the mini’s right up to our new president, Donal Lennon and his committee. Best of luck to all players who will wear the Lansdowne colours this season and I look forward to seeing you all in the bar for some light refreshments…